Gymnastics, costume parade 08

So, I am quickly finding out that Hailey is much more "opinionated" than Braxton ever was. Every morning is a struggle for us to agree on what she is going to wear that day. If I let her, she'd wear a swimming suit over a pair of tights everyday.
Picking out a Halloween costume this year, proved to be just as difficult. We went to "Party City" and stood in front of the wall of costumes for about 20 min while she picked which of the princess's she wanted to be. It was so painful....She finally picked the Ariel costume, so we went to get some accessories for it and she spotted the Ariel wig. The picture on the package was hideous, so I can only imagine what it looked like out of the package and there was no way I was spending $20 on that! So we argued about getting the wig for another 15 min. She finally gave in and decided that since she couldn't have the wig she didn't want to be Ariel anymore. So back to the wall of costumes..... We went back and forth with every princess, because they all had wigs that she wanted. I finally got her to get the Sleeping Beauty costume, without the wig. I convinced her that she already has Sleeping Beauty princess hair. Next year I'm hoping we can do something a little more creative.

Hailey in her gymnastics class.

The costume is so cheap.....the crown looks more like a headband. But she loves it and that's what matters.

Doing her stretches....and she just couldn't put the sceptor down.


Gabby and Hailey.

My parents last visit.......

My parents made their annual trip out here. Although this time, now that my sister Kristine and brother Jarom live close, that would mean that half of the family would be together. So we were all looking forward to their visit. My parents flew out and drove down to Charleston to stay with my brother and his wife. Jarom had to work at the hospital while they were there, but was going to drive out here with my parents to stay with us. The first half of their trip went as planned. They got to see Charleston and where Jarom and Liina live.

However here in Atlanta, Kristines daughter, Kira had come down with the stomach flu. We all hoped that she would be over it by the time my parents and Jarom came out. No such luck, not only did she not get better quickly, my nephew, my sister and brother in law all got it. So Jarom and Liina decided not to risk getting it, and stayed home. My parents stayed one night with Kristine and decided to move to a hotel, when the rest of the family came down with it. The worst part is my mom ended up getting it the night before they went home.

So the trip didn't quite turn out how we'd hoped! Such is life, better luck next time! (the funny thing is, none of the Ellsworths got it and we'd all been exposed)

The one day that we were able to go out and do something before my mom got sick, we went up to Helen and to the pumpkin patch. Kira had started feeling better by this point, but you can tell in the pictures she's not quite herself.....

The bug house cont.....

The tenants had done so many odd things to the house....Like wall paper some of the windows, the cupboards, the bathtub? I don't know what the tradition is down in Mexico, but it just seems odd to me. If you notice even the windows are new. Mike was inspired by my Brother in law, Craig, who had replaced their windows himself. So, Mike did it all on his own and saved us a lot of money!

There is much more that we did, but this gives you an idea. I don't know what we are going to do with ourselves now that we are done! It will be nice to have a free Saturday.

The "Bug House"

Mike and I have had a lease/purchase home for a little over 4 years. The tenants that lived in there were supposed to purchase the home after 3 years. Well, the 3 year mark came and went and they were unable to get the loan. This past June we find out that the family had just up and moved, owing us 2 months rent. A few days after we found this out I went over to the house to see what kind of shape it was in. It was so......I can't even find the words that would do it justice. Definately not a place I would wish on my worst enemy! The smell was so awful, I could barely stand to be in the house. And the cockroaches were so bad they were falling from the ceiling.

Our summer was pretty much spent in fixing up the house so we could sell. We started in July and literally just finished on Tuesday. We worked on it every spare second we had. Even the kids helped out. Mike taught Braxton how to cut and lay tile, and Hailey helped with painting. (I'm still trying to get paint out of her hair).

When we first started working on the house, Hailey started to refer to it as the "bug house", because of all of the bugs.....so that's what we've called. Although now that it's clean and we had an exterminator come there are no more bugs. Here are some before and after shots.

the kitchen....there was caked grease everywhere! And roaches in all of the cupboards and drawers and crawling all over the floor. Who wall papers their stove?

The after shot. We did everything ourselves, we even taught ourselves how to lay hardwood floors.

Mike added on extra cupboards. I'm so glad I married someone who's so handy.

this is the family room. The carpet was so gross I didn't even want to walk on it with shoes on.....and they had taken the light fixture.....and it wasn't this color when we rented them the house.

amazing what some paint, new floors and a nice light fixture can do.

The Bug house

The house after some TLC